David Sessions (1790-1850)
}} Biography David Sessions III was born on April 4, 1790 in Fairlee, Orange Co., Vermont, to his parents David Sessions Sr. and Rachel Stevens. David married seventeen year old Patty Bartlett on June 28, 1812, against her parents opposition. The young couple moved ten miles away to his parent’s home in Ketcham. While Patty was establishing her practice of midwifery she was also having babies herself and assisting her husband in establishing a large farm, a saw mill, and a hotel or tavern. Of all of her children only three lived to adulthood. Patty and David had been baptized as Methodist, but when they were introduced to the gospel as taught by the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they were baptized in July, 1834, by Daniel Bean. In August 1833, David and Patty canceled all prospect of living and dying near their birth place and being buried next to those already planted in the ground. The Mormon missionaries came preaching in Andover West Surplus. Their message altered the Sessions life dramatically and permanently. Patty accepted the Gospel immediately bit David needed to study longer. To appease David, she waited until July 1834 to be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. David was baptized a year later on August 12, 1835. The gathering of the saints was taught and the Session made preparations to move to Zion was made. David started selling his property and by July 1837 took leave of their family and friends. After an arduous journey David and Patty’s family arrived in Far West, Missouri on November 1837, they traveled by land and water, by self-made trail, and by well-used road. The journey was difficult and especially for Patty who gave birth to a daughter, Amanda, on November 14, 1837, shortly after arriving in Far West. The Missourians, fearing of being overrun by the Mormons turned to violence to force the growing Mormon colony out of the State. Twenty or twenty-five saints had been murdered and fifty or sixty were put in prison. The Prophet, Joseph Smith, told everyone to head for Illinois. The Sessions were again on the move from February 15, 1839 to April, through mud and cold and ice-clogged rivers; the Sessions family struggled toward Illinois. They occasionally found lodging but generally pitched a tent. Patty carried ailing eighteen-month old Amanda all the way. A temporary house of their own in Carthage, Illinois, must of felt like the Promised Land after living in tents most of the time. The family moved from Carthage to Nauvoo. Amanda died at the age of three years, six months, and one day; she died on May 15, 1841 of the croup. She was buried in Nauvoo. After the arrest and assassination of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, the Saints started their eventual flight west. Before leaving David and Patty received their endowments in the newly completed Nauvoo Temple in 1846 and their son Perrigrime outfitted them to start their trek west. David died on August 11, 1850, of a paralytic stroke, he lived about a week after he was struck. David left behind Harriet’s young son by an earlier marriage, Harriet pregnant, and of course Patty. Marriage and Family This family practiced the law of Plural Marriage, with both daughter Sylvia and wife Patty becoming spiritual wives of the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith (1805-1844). Then David also took on two plural wives. 1st Marriage: Patty Bartlett Patty Bartlett (1795-1892) AKA: Patty Sessions - Famous Mormon midwife who also kept extensive journals of the Mormon experience, those journals record the birth of over 4000 Mormon children. David married seventeen year old Patty Bartlett on June 28, 1812, against her parents opposition. The young couple moved ten miles away to his parent’s home in Ketcham. With David’s mother needing constant care, Patty found herself in constant care of the household. Here Patty stumbled into midwifery quite by accident. # Perrigrine Sessions (1814-1893) - Founder of Bountiful, Utah, many wives and children. # Sylvanus Sessions (1816-1832) # Sylvia Porter Sessions (1818-1882) - plural wife of Joseph Smith (1805-1844) and later married Ezekiel Clark (1817-1898) and Iowa banker and father of the US Greenback. # Anna B Sessions (1820-1824) # David Sessions (1823-1896) # Anna B Sessions (1825-1832) # Bartlett Sessions (1827-1828) # Amanda D Sessions (1837-1841) # Athelson Sessions (1841-1842) 2nd Marriage: Rosilla Cowan Rosilla Cowan (1814-1894) - no info / no children? David took polygamous wives. Rosilla, David’s plural wife remained behind at the time of the exodus from Nauvoo, but in June caught up with the company in Iowa. After a few weeks Rosilla, turned back to Illinois. 3rd Marriage: Harriet Teeples In the spring of 1849, David consulted Brigham Young and married the second plural wife, nineteen year old, Harriet Teeples Wixom. David was fifty-nine and Patty was Fifty-one. He married Harriet Elvira Teeples (1830-1911) shortly before his death. # James Monroe Sessions (1847-1931) - adopted # David H Sessions (1850-1851) - born two months after father's death. died young. References * Patty Bartlett Sessions * Patty Bartlett - JosephSmithPolygamy.org